R&M Wholesale fire - open letter

Open letter from Ian Moorcroft of R&M Moorcroft:

On the evening of 2nd January 2022, there was a devasting arson attack on R&M Wholesale head office premises in Tiverton. Devastating for two reasons. The first being a life long dedication to my business being destroyed by a wicked act. The second being other businesses were either destroyed or at the very least inconvenienced.

I don’t mind admitting that standing in the heat of the fire, in the hours that followed during which time many Fire Fighting agencies joined together to bring the fire under control, my thoughts had turned cold
and dark. I couldn’t see the future, didn’t perhaps want to. Beside me a voice said, ‘’we can do this Chief, we’ve got this’’. On my eventual drive home, my thoughts were all but positive and following a restless night, I made my way down to the site the following morning.

The sight that greeted me was worse than I had imagined. Somehow when the flames were roaring there was a strange, maybe morbid curiosity which keeps you from thinking forward. But the reality of
that morning came home with a sharp pain. Years of work and effort gone. The fight just left me completely. Those around me that day, tried to pick up my spirits and the Police were genuinely supportive. Incredibly after an hour of arriving back on site we had through the goodwill of Tiverton Town Football Club, a place to meet and start planning. Jamie had arrived armed already with a plan of action! And together with Jenny the three of us began to climb our way up the mountain.

During that morning calls on the phone and in person began to trickle through. Till by the end of the day we felt humbled by the incredible kindness of customers, suppliers, neighbours, friends and strangers. From that moment onwards we had our drive back. Jamie was committed to getting R&M open and trading straight away. With the help of the staff and the good fortune of having another depot, we were operational of sorts on the Tuesday morning. No resting on laurels for us. Onwards
and onwards the focus was to get back up and running as soon as possible. 9 working days later, we had premises, desks, equipment, and more importantly stock deliveries. Unbelievable, a tremendous effort
by all and a testament to the dedication R&M have to their customers. IT issues made things harder than they could have been for a little longer, but we are now fully operational and again committed to
delivering an A* service.

I have so many people I would like to thank…..all the emergency services that were involved, all the people that have helped us along the way, you all know who you are. The staff who dug in, and our suppliers who came through for us,.

A special thank you also, to Paul, Ken and Christine Coles and all of their staff who went to great lengths to make a new home for us in a very short time and have made us all so very welcome.

Thank you all.

We are back.

Ian Moorcroft
R & M Wholesale
Unit 1, Chelston House Farm
Wellington
Somerset
TA21 9HP
01884 258266
www.rmwholesale.co.uk
sales@rmwholesale.co.uk